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News > World

Nagasaki Remembers the Victims of the US Nuclear Bomb

  • Explosion of the

    Explosion of the "Fat Man" nuclear bomb over Nagasaki, Japan, Aug. 9, 1945. | Photo: Twitter / @WWIIpix

Published 9 August 2021
Opinion

The "Fat Man" bomb exploded over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, three days after the U.S. dropped its first nuclear weapon on the civilian population in Hiroshima.

On the 76th anniversary of the atomic bombing carried out by the United States, Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue urged countries to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

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"When the Treaty entered into force in January, it was the first time in human history that there was an international law that clearly established that nuclear weapons are unequivocally illegal," he said during the ceremony in memory of the victims, which began with a minute of silence at 11:02, the exact time of the nuclear explosion.

Mayor Taue told governments having nuclear weapons that the possession of such weapons makes the world a more dangerous place, even if such possession is justified by arguing the need for a supposed nuclear deterrent.

So far, none of the world's nuclear powers have signed the pact. Neither has Japan, which is covered under the U.S. "nuclear umbrella."

For this reason, Taue demanded that the Japanese government join as an observer at the first meeting of the TPNW member states to be held in 2022.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, however, avoided making any mention of this treaty and only ratified the current Japanese position in favor of a nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

The "Fat Man" nuclear bomb exploded over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, three days after the United States dropped the first nuclear weapon on the civilian population in Hiroshima. About 74,000 people died in Nagasaki from the bombing by the end of that year. In March 2021, the number of survivors of the nuclear attack was 127,755 people with an average age of 84 years.

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